Mai Vino was the wine category winner of WSWA’s 2023 Brand Battle. This female-founded brand is a single-origin wine, with a large focus on sustainability. After the Brand Battle category session, Mai Vu, founder of Mai Vino, told WSWA more about her brand. Mai Vino will represent the wine category live, on-stage in the 2023 Brand Battle Championship at Access LIVE.
Tell us about your brand. What inspired you to create it? What makes it unique?
We all know what it's like to have that conversation...with ourselves or a partner - should we open a bottle?
We started Mai Vino because we hate waste but love wine and believe that having a great glass of wine shouldn't be difficult OR expensive.
So we decided to do something about it. We work directly with winemakers and growers from around the world to produce regeneratively grown, organic wines fermented with indigenous yeast. We then package these wines in airtight pouches that keep the wine fresher longer and reduce its carbon footprint by 80%.
We believe the best wines are unfussy and fun to be around - so grab a glass and let us know what you think!
Why did you decide to enter the 2023 Brand Battle competition?
We decided to enter the brand battle to promote our brand to the top distributors and retailers in the business. This event is a fantastic opportunity to showcase Mai Vino's unique selling points and learn where we can improve.
Your packaging is unique! Tell us why you decided to go with a bag for your wines.
At Mai Vino, we believe in making delicious wine more affordable by reducing waste. We achieve this by packaging wine in a bag with an airtight spout which keeps wine fresh for 30 days after opening - great for leisure drinkers who hate throwing out the wine they don't finish. In addition, while similar to traditional bag-in-box packaging, we have opted for a more sustainable approach by liberating the bag from the box, further reducing packaging waste.
Tell us about your portfolio and what's next for your brand?
We just launched our first Orange wine from Itata Valley, Chile - ! It's a mix of 90% Moscatel and 10% Semillion. The wines are dry-farmed, wild-fermented, and come from an 80-year-old vine.
While Orange Wine may be trending, it's an old method for making white wine. In Itata Valley, "Orange Wine" is considered white wine. This is because pressing grapes is an expensive, relatively new technology. Because of the cost, white wine technology never made it to the Itata Valley, and the region's winemakers relied on more traditional ways of making wine.
What are you looking forward to most while at Access LIVE?
Getting to meet distributors and retailers in person. Access Live will be our first wine tradeshow. We are excited to be able to show our product live and get reactions and feedback IRL.
How will you leverage your time at Access LIVE to build new or grow existing relationships with wholesalers and other members of the industry?
We are looking to expand our distribution, so we will attend all the events trying to meet as many people as possible. So please come say hi - we'll be at Booth 303!